Okay, this is the part where I have to step up and ‘fess up. I was young and broke when I got married. I don’t mean a little bit broke. I mean I spent more on a used car sporting 135,000 miles on it than I did for my entire wedding, including venue and reception. We bought our wedding invitations at WalMart and handwrote all of them with the help of the maid of honor (who still blames me every time she gets a hand cramp).
Since I’ve started working with the brides around here to create the perfect wedding invitation for their perfect day, I’ve learned a lot about everything I was missing out on. Wedding invitations (and the cleverly coordinated thank-you cards to go with them) make the wedding official. There’s no turning back once those invites are in the mail! And the style and design of your wedding invitations sets the atmosphere and tone for the rest of your event.
Don’t get me started on the WalMart wedding. Believe me, I know.
My wedding looked NOTHING like this.
We’ll save the discussion of matching your wedding theme to your blog design for another day and instead zero in on one simple, inescapable question you’re going to run into every time you start talking about ordering wedding invitations from your friendly neighborhood wedding printer.
How many wedding invitations do you really need?
We’re not touching the size of your guest list with a ten foot pole. That’s strictly between you, your future spouse and your parents/in-laws. Once you’ve haggled over who’s getting an invitation and who’s getting an announcement after the fact, it’s time to get an actual number. Here’s what we recommend:
Take your guest list, then add 30. And tack an extra 10-20 envelopes on top of that. That gives you a nice, healthy buffer for addressing mistakes and unexpected additions you’ve suddenly discovered you’re not going to be welcome at Thanksgiving dinner without!